Iraqi militants claimed today they took a Japanese security contractor hostage after ambushing a convoy of foreigners and Iraqi troops in western Iraq.

Yahya Barzanji, Irbil

A pair of car bombs exploded near the Iraqi interior minister’s offices in Baghdad today, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen others.

Two car bombs exploded near government offices in the Iraqi capital today, killing 18 and wounding three dozen as insurgent attacks against security forces left at least eight others dead.

A video surfaced on the internet today showing three drivers employed by a Jordanian trucking company being shot dead execution style by a militant Islamic group in Iraq.

Eleven Iraqis and a US Marine were killed in election violence today as insurgents clashed with US troops and blew up a school slated to serve as a polling centre.

An Islamic militant website claimed today a Briton and a Swede had been kidnapped in Iraq and killed. The claim could not be verified.

Two Iraqis who set up an internet system in have been executed by an rebel group and their deaths shown on a videotape posted on a website today.

The suicide bomber who killed 22 people when he blew himself up in a US army mess tent the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, was a Saudi medical student, an Arab newspaper reported today.

Three militant groups warned Iraqis against voting in the January 30 elections, saying that people participating in the “dirty farce” risked attack.